Proof That You Are Not A Good Person
Chapter 3:1-8
1 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?
2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.
3 For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?
4 Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: "That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged."
5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)
6 Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?
7 For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?
8 And why not say, "Let us do evil that good may come"?-- as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.
So why a Jew?
-God is no respector of persons, would shock a Jew who considered themselves very special people. We think the same today of the Jews’ special status.
They focused much attention on their priveledges not their responsibilities.
1. What advantage than has the Jew?
V2 they have the word of God first
2. Will Jewish unfaithfulness cancel God’s faithfulness?
V4 It will establish it (Chapter 9-11)
3. Does our unreighteousness make God more righteous?
V6 He is absolutely righteous.
Rom 3:9-20
9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
10 As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one;
11 There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.
12 They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one."
13 "Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit"; "The poison of asps is under their lips";
14 "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness."
15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways;
17 And the way of peace they have not known."
18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Verse 9. What shall we conclude then? Where have we got to? What can we say?
Well, when it comes to Jew verses Gentile - and Paul’s a Jew himself - he asks the question, can we Jews say we’re any better than anyone else? And it’s a question you might like to rephrase for us Baptists too. ARE WE ANY BETTER? And the answer is, NOT AT ALL!
People like to believe that we are basically good. But men feel guilty because they are guilty. Unless his sin is removed his guilt will remain.
He says, that’s exactly what I’ve just been talking about. Follow in verse 9. We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are under sin.
under - a heavy load that you can not escape from. Also includes under the power, authority and control of something.
And that means ALL OF US. And then Paul goes on to quote the Old Testament, cause it makes the same point over and over again. And you want to know the problem of the world?
Three categories:
1. Character - v10-12 Mind (None understand)
2. Conversation - v13-14 Heart (None seek)
3. Conduct - v15-17 Will (None do good)
The Cause: v18 no fear of God
Ps 14:1-3
1 The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.
2 The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3 They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one.
Contrast:
Prov 9:10
10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
God seeks the sinner -
So a Seeker Sensitive service is when God is pleased.
Gen 3:8-10
8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"
10 So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."
Luke 19:10
10 "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
John 4:23
23 "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
John 6:37-39
37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
39 "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
John 6:44
44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
It’s a dangerous thing to be told there’s NO PROBLEM when there really IS A PROBLEM. To be told there’s NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT - when really there is. Because when you don’t face up to the problem, there’s no hope of a cure.
V19-20 Our only response before God is absolute silence.
Romans 3:21-31
But now...
It has been a dark picture up until this ppooint.
Ricky Hoyt is a little boy who’s completely and permanently disabled. As well as being physically disabled, he’s intellectually disabled as well. He can’t walk, he can’t talk, he can’t even eat without help. Ricky can’t do anything.
But a couple of years back, Ricky Hoyt completed the HAWAIIAN IRON MAN TRIATHLON. It was a SWIM, a RIDE and a RUN. And he made it to the finish line.
Now it’s pretty obvious that Ricky didn’t do it on his own. Ricky couldn’t do anything. But his dad Jack carried him all the way. During the swim section of the triathlon, he pulled him along in a little dinghy. In the cycling section, Jack pedalled 112 miles with Ricky strapped into a cart behind him. And on foot, he dragged him in a little trailer 26 miles. Until finally, Ricky’s dad carried him over the finishing line. And Ricky Hoyt became the first totally disabled person to ever complete the Hawaiin Iron Man triathlon.
In spiritual terms, we’re TOTALLY DISABLED. In spiritual terms, on our own we can’t do a thing. BUT OUR HEAVENLY FATHER HAS CARRIED US ACROSS THE LINE.
verse 21, BUT... And here comes the good news... BUT NOW THERE’S A NEW WAY. But now, he says, A RIGHTEOUSNESS FROM GOD APART FROM LAW has been made known. He says the Law and the Prophets in the Old Testament pointed to it, they testified to it, but now it’s HERE. And you can see in verse 22, he says, “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
It’s a word we use sometimes in everyday conversation, and if you’ve ever tried to JUSTIFY yourself when you’ve done something wrong you’ll know exactly what it means. Kid’s are the experts at it, aren’t they? So when Madeleine punches Susie on the arm at our place, and I ask her why she did it, she JUSTIFIES HERSELF as quick as a flash. Well, she hit me first. Or, well, I didn’t really mean to hit her I was just trying to catch a fly. All sorts of ways she’ll try to tell me she’s NOT GUILTY. All sorts of ways she’ll try to DECLARE HERSELF RIGHTEOUS. Which is exactly what JUSTIFIED means when you see it in the bible. Justify means DECLARE RIGHTEOUS, notsymbolically or potentially but actually.
And you can see it if you look at verse 23 and 24. Paul’s saying, everyone’s sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Back in verse 20 he said no-one will be DECLARED RIGHTEOUS by keeping the law. But - verse 24 - we’re JUSTIFIED FREELY BY HIS GRACE.
In other words, forget about justifying yourself, forget about trying to prove how righteous you are - GOD’S DONE IT FOR YOU. Out of his GRACE, his sheer generousity. Friends, it’s an amazing though here. Cause he’s saying, rather than turning up to God and having to justify yourself, having to make excuses, HE’S DONE IT FOR YOU. And it’s GOD who’s going to say, it’s okay, doesn’t matter what you’ve done, YOU’RE JUSTIFIED. Read it again from the end of verse 22. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, AND ARE JUSTIFIED FREELY by his grace... and keep reading, cause it takes us to our next word... through the REDEMPTION that came by Christ Jesus.
REDEMPTION
You’ve seen the ads for CASH CONVERTERS on TV. You’ve walked past Pawn shops. Maybe you’ve even got to the point where you’ve had to use one. You’re tight for cash. So you take off your wedding ring, or you grab your portable telly, and you take it in, and they give you about half what it’s worth.
Now that’s not quite the end of the story, cause if it’s a pawn shop, if things take a turn for the better, you can actually get your stuff back. And when you get some money together, you can go back in - and you can REDEEM your wedding ring. Which means you can BUY IT BACK FROM CAPTIVITY. You can pay the price to set it free again. Big word number two is REDEMPTION. And it means to PAY THE PRICE to buy something back.
Which Paul says is exactly what Jesus has done. He’s paid for us. He’s redeemed us.
ATONEMENT
And you can see the way he did it in the next verse, verse 25. Which bring us to word number 3. The word ATONEMENT. It’s talking about Jesus, and it says “God presented him as a SACRIFICE OF ATONEMENT.”
ATONEMENT means to MAKE UP FOR A WRONG. Atonement means to MAKE AMENDS. Atonement means to pay for the repairs if you scratch somebody’s car. Atonement is when you drop and break your friends best tea cup and you buy a new one to replace it. Atonement is PAYING THE PRICE FOR A WRONG. To put it right. And the sacrifice of Atonement it’s talking about in verse 25 is the DEATH OF JESUS. Sacrificed on the cross to MAKE AMENDS for our sin. To pay the price for our wrongs. We deserve to GO TO HELL. And Jesus made up for that. He REDEEMED US - by paying with his life.
WHY DID GOD DO IT? To demonstrate His righteousness. He alone can only make you right.
Paul gives us a DO and a DON’T.
Don’t Boast
First of all, the don’t. In the light of what God’s done, he says, one thing you definitely can’t do is BOAST. One thing you can’t do is have a stuck up spiritually superior sort of attitude. And in the church at Rome, it seems like that was a problem. You’ve got the Christians with a Jewish background on the one hand, and the Christians from a Gentile background on the other. And it seems like the Jews were boasting about their great religious pedigree, about their laws and regulations.And it was causing real division.
To which Paul says, HOLD ON! It’s in verse 27 to 30. He says, “Where then is boasting? What have you got to boast about?” I mean, there’s no point Ricky Hoyt BOASTING about finishing the Triathlon. Cause it’s his DAD who did all the hard work. And it’s the same with us. No point BOASTING. Or acting superior. Or thinking that there’s something about you that somehow DESERVED to be REDEEMED by God. Where then is boasting? It’s excluded, says Paul, cause we’re all on exactly the same footing. Sinners. Who God has justified. And that means the only right way to deal with each other is in HUMILITY. As forgiven sinner to forgiven sinner.
Faith
There’s a second part of our response. We’ve just looked at the DON’T. Well, this one’s the DO. And Paul says the one thing you’ve got to do, is HAVE FAITH. Look through the passage again, and you’ll wonder how you missed seeing it - cause Paul’s talking about faith everywhere you look. Verse 22. This righteousness from God comes THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS. And again in verse 25. Through FAITH IN HIS BLOOD. Verse 26. God is the one who justifies those who HAVE FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS. Verse 27. It’s there again. And verse 28 - a man is justified by FAITH apart from observing the law. And verse 30 and verse 31. Seven times. Because it’s THE KEY.
Faith means TRUSTING IN GOD TO DO WHAT HE PROMISES.
Jer 31:31-34
31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah--
32 "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.
33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
34 "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ’Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Which is exactly what God’s calling you to do. And me. And maybe you’ve never got to the point of doing that - TRUSTING the God who paid the price for you. Who REDEEMED YOU. Who gave his son to ATONE FOR YOUR SINS. And maybe you need to get to that point of saying, “I intend to TRUST JESUS from now on. To let him be the boss. And set my directions for me.”
Maybe you’ve always figured God would let you in because your good points outweigh your bad points. Maybe you figured God would let you in cause you’ve always been RELIGIOUS. And you’d be WRONG. Maybe you never knew Jesus was prepared to carry you. That you don’t need to JUSTIFY YOURSELF. Cause he’s done it for you. It’s great news. So maybe for you it’s time to stop trying to do that. And jump on board. To let him take you over the line.
